The Van Wert County Courthouse

Thursday, Mar. 28, 2024

Statewide sting leads to dozens of arrests

Van Wert independent staff

COLUMBUS — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced that 161 people were arrested and 51 potential human trafficking victims were helped in a statewide operation for which nearly 100 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies partnered with non-governmental and nonprofit organizations.

Dave Yost

Operation Ohio Knows, coordinated through Yost’s Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission (OOCIC), was a collaborative effort that took place from September 24 to October 1 to address issues that fuel sex trafficking in Ohio.

“People who traffic other humans are doing it for a really simple reason, money, and if there’s no demand then there will be no market,” Yost said Monday morning during a press conference at the Statehouse. “Reducing the demand means we reduce the number of people who are victimized by human trafficking.

“We will not rest until no one in Ohio buys or sells human beings.”

The operation included the arrest of 161 individuals seeking to buy sex – three of who sought to buy sex from minors. During the course of the operation, law enforcement officers also arrested individuals who possessed drugs and/or firearms. Most were charged with engaging in prostitution, a first-degree misdemeanor.

Among those arrested were a teacher, a professor, a firefighter, a pilot, municipal employees and a city councilman.

Fifty individuals offering to sell sex – men and women – were arrested. Law enforcement officers interviewed 51 potential human trafficking victims, who were provided services from health care and social services organizations.

A simultaneous operation carried out by the U.S. Marshals Service recovered 10 missing children.

POSTED: 10/05/21 at 3:51 am. FILED UNDER: News